It does say why a log scale was chosen.
“ First, to span the wide range of possible values, Richter adopted Gutenberg’s suggestion of a logarithmic scale, where each step represents a tenfold increase of magnitude, similar to the magnitude scale used by astronomers for star brightness.”
It does say why a log scale was chosen.
“ First, to span the wide range of possible values, Richter adopted Gutenberg’s suggestion of a logarithmic scale, where each step represents a tenfold increase of magnitude, similar to the magnitude scale used by astronomers for star brightness.”